Michel Koch

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Born

SOCIAL LINKS

Michel Koch is a French freelance illustrator and concept artist currently working as DONTNOD Entertainment's art and game director (since 2008). Next to his work on DONTNOD's first game, Remember Me, he was significantly involved in the development of Life is Strange as Concept Artist, Artistic Director, Co-Game Director and additional Writer.

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He went to Supcréa, Grenoble, and studied at Ecole Emile Cohl, Lyon, in France.

The name "Michel" is pronounced how the female name "Michelle" is pronounced in the UK and USA.

Michel Koch's favorite television show is X-Files.

He is a big fan of the Twin Peaks series, hence the great influence on Life Is Strange[1], and he is looking forward to the 2017 reboot of the original series directed by Lynch[2].

He is also a big fan of Stephen King's works. There are several references to Stephen King throughout Life Is Strange.

He is also a fan of the True Detective TV series. There is a reference to it on David Madsen's car license plate.

On July 27, 2015, Michel Koch put a rainbow filter on his profile picture to celebrate the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.

Michel Koch played and praised the choice-based game Until Dawn saying, "it was a great ride from the beginning to the end, can't wait to replay it!"[3]

He also played Firewatch, praising it with the words "such a great job on the writing, voices and art."[4]

After the revelation of Tracer from the game Overwatch being in a relationship with another woman in December 2016, Michel Koch asked for Tracer and Max Caulfield fanart and OverwatchxLifeIsStrange crossovers on Twitter.[5]

After the release of Episode 4: Dark Room, Michel Koch posted on Twitter, "Today I have a small glimpse of how good GRR Martin must feel everyday!", sarcastically referring to the importance of death in this episode.

Michel Koch revealed in an interview that they wrote Episode 1: Chrysalis, with the intention of introducing the typical high school stereotypes, before building upon them and subverting them with every episode. "When we started to create every character, we really wanted to use known archetypes that people see in teenage drama and in movies."

He also revealed the intention behind the scene of Warren Graham beating up Nathan Prescott. "If you choose not to step in on the fight with Nathan, we start to see something a little different, a darker side of Warren. It's very violent and gets a bit out of control. It shows us that, even if we're good characters, we all have a side of us that can go out of control. Everyone has shades of grey, bits of darkness."

Michel Koch stated that Max and Chloe is the ultimate pairing during a twitch livestream with Luc Baghadoust. When interviewers asked about romance (i.e. Max and Chloe's relationship), he replied: "Chloe et Max ne marchent qu'ensemble", which means they "only walked together" (as also in romantically attached to each other) as in they are a great pair and can only function with each other. He also called Chloe an antagonist and her being the opposite of Max and how it's the reason their pairing worked.